The objective of this study is to provide details on a novel wide area acousto-optic (AO) sensor that can be used to nondestructively evaluate materials and components in near real-time. A description of the technology and how it compares to conventional ultrasonic methods is provided. The results from three experiments provide details on how acoustography compares to conventional ultrasonics when applied to the inspection of composite parts. The first experiment involves performing ultrasonic and acoustography tests on a standard graphite/epoxy composite panel that has embedded inclusions of known sizes. The objective of this experiment is to determine if the capabilities (i.e. resolution) of acoustography are comparable to those of conventional ultrasonic techniques. The second experiment applied acoustography and ultrasonic techniques to evaluate the effects of low impact damage in composite materials. The third experiment involves applying ultrasonics and acoustography to evaluate a complex shaped composite part. The purpose of this experiment is to show the strengths and weaknesses of both techniques as applied to real world problems.